Jamie “Athenar” Walters started his Cleveland-based speed metal band, Midnight, back in 2003. Inspired by Venom, classic ’80s metal, and obscure underground extremities, he unleashed a firestorm of singles, EPs, and compilations—playing all the instruments himself on each recording—before dropping his first proper full-length, Satanic Royalty, in 2011. But touring wasn’t high on his list of priorities until recently. “I had my little thing of just doing 15 shows a year, and I was good with that,” he tells Apple Music. “But now I’m on the back nine of life, so we might as well accept some gigs. I’ll continue to do the same thing musically, but at least let’s get out there if there’s people who want to hear the stuff live in different countries, different cities. It beats sitting around the house.” Midnight's fourth LP in a sprawling discography, Rebirth by Blasphemy delivers some of Midnight’s most infectious and triumphant metal yet. Below, Athenar takes us track by track through its ten killer cuts. F*****g Speed and Darkness “At first the title was just going to be ‘Speed and Darkness,’ but I just thought that was too generic. So I had to add a little offensive adjective in there. It’s about my transformation from being a 10-year-old listening to Twisted Sister and Mötley Crüe and then discovering that next step of Slayer, Metallica, and those kind of extreme bands. It’s the next level of speed and darkness. You want it faster; you want it more evil, more aggressive. So it’s about remembering the first time you heard that type of music and keeping it with you.” Rebirth by Blasphemy “The title suggests that it may be something positive, like a rebirth or a refreshening, like something kind of joyous and New Agey. But in actuality, it was just written on one of those negative days that we all have, where not only do you not even want to get out of bed, but it’s like, ‘Why even leave the birth canal?’ And unbeknownst to me, there’s a James Bond kind of guitar riff in the beginning. After I recorded it, the guy who engineered it was like, ‘Hey, man—did you do that 007 thing on purpose?’ But I didn’t. I’m not even really a big James Bond fan. So I don’t know. I guess it’s a little bonus in there for anybody who likes 007.” Escape the Grave “This one is on the opposite end of the spectrum from ‘Rebirth,’ and it was one of the first tunes written for the album. There was an initial spark of positivity going into this song, you know, instead of ‘Ah, man—this fucking sucks. The world blows. Fire, hell, demons, darkness,’ I’m going to try and make something that’s kind of escaping the grave. Don’t let the demons pull you down—get out and do something worthwhile in life. But in the end, it always turns to shit. Which is where ‘Rebirth’ comes in. Once you try and do something positive, you’ll just get fucked in the end again.” Devil's Excrement “This is a bit of an obsessive tune about keeping track of your bowel movements. When you get to a certain point, you start thinking about all these health concerns and health issues, and colon cancer, and this and that, and thin stools, and change in dietary habits, and fiber intake. So that's kind of where that came from—a bit of an unhealthy obsession with bowel movements, done over a Discharge drumbeat. Let’s just say it’s pretty close to home.” Rising Scum “This is a bit triumphant-sounding, and the drumbeat is pretty much taken from Billy Squier’s ‘The Big Beat.’ If you listen to that and listen to this, it’s the same thing. So thank you, Mr. Squier, for that. I just wanted something triumphant and kind of big-sounding. Lyrically, it’s about maybe adjusting [to] or accepting these modern times that we're living in. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing to accept it or not, but you just realize that there’s no more patience or tolerance for anything in the world anymore. The scum is rising, you know?” Warning From the Reaper “I hate to say serious shit, and I’m never going to be able to tell people what to do with their lives at all ever, but a couple of my coworkers died of heroin overdoses. I know that happens everywhere in the world, but it seems like it’s hugely popular in Ohio and Michigan. You see your coworkers every day, but you don’t realize they’re raging junkies until you hear they just died of an overdose. Seeing people destroy themselves on purpose is kind of a shock, so, again, not to get too heavy, but the reaper’s there. He’s going to give you a warning.” Cursed Possessions “I like to pronounce it curs-ed—it sounds more English or something, I guess. This is another one about unhealthy obsessions—in this case, collecting records, but I guess anybody could apply it to whatever they want. Musically, I wanted something like ‘My Last Words’ from [Megadeth’s] Peace Sells. Lyrically, there’s a couple of Easter eggs in there for the record dorks; I talk about Crowley records and Deny and other obscure record snob stuff—just some little bonuses in there to keep people amused.” Raw Attack “The other day someone was like, ‘Is that song about wrestling?’ I said, ‘I guess so, yeah.’ I never thought about that, but I guess if that’s your thing—if you’re into professional wrestling or whatever the hell—then yeah, the song is exactly about wrestling. But for me, it’s about raw food—sushi and stuff like that. So you’ll hear lyrics like ‘The mercury is rising tonight,’ because of the mercury levels in the fish. But if someone wants to think it’s about wrestling, and attacking in a raw and aggressive way, then that’s fine too.” The Sounds of Hell “This was somewhat of an attempt to get that first Iron Maiden record type of sound, at least in my head. They do all those major-sounding scales, but still make it sound aggressive. They’re really good at that, rather than doing everything with diminished chords, Black Sabbath-style. But that’s Iron Maiden’s thing, where they just have all these happy-sounding chords but then they sing ‘666, the number of the beast’ over it. It’s like the anti-devil’s triad. And then lyrically, this one is about hearing voices in your head telling you to do bad stuff. So a bit of happiness and a bit of insanity mixed makes for a good metal song.” You Can Drag Me Through Fire “A couple of people suggested this should be the album opener, which may not have been bad, but I always heard it as a closer for some reason. It’s got that Def Leppard guitar backing in there, like High ’N’ Dry style. There’s a bit of triumph in the opening. Depending on how you want to look at the song, it can be about complete devotion to a person or complete slavery to a person. It’s a very fine line between devotion and just giving up on life.”